I hope I’m posting this in the correct area, apologies if not!
My mum was diagnosed in 2002 aged 55, and to be honest I am not 100% certain of the exact details (and I don’t want to bring it up with her now after all this time!) but there was significnant lymph node involvement (although the most distant lymph node was clear) and I am pretty sure it was Grade 3 cancer.
She underwent a mastectomy with lymph node removal and then an intensive radio and chemotherapy protocol. Again I cannot remember the specific drugs used (to be honest I don’t think I even asked at that stage!)
Touchwood, all has been fine since, and she has a yearly check up.
My job in an insurance office has recently involved a lot of studying of medical conditions and I have read about the chance of recurrence after a number of years.
I have been looking around the web for more info on this but I’m struggling. I know there are never any guarantees and it is difficult to be precise, but can anyone provide any indication of the likelihood of recurrence at this stage based on the limited info I have given?!
Unfortunately nobody can know… The longer you live after BC the more chance you have of it never coming back… But there is never going to be a zero percent chance of recurrence… So even if she only had a 1% chance of a recurrence she could still be that 1.
Having a grade 3 cancer, lymph node involvement and requiring chemo would have meant she was at a higher risk of an earlier recurrence so its gab that she is now 11 years past her primary and i hope she continues to do well.
There are some prognostic tools used for survival… They tend not to include recurrence and just look at the number of people who will live 5 or 10 years after diagnosis whether they have cancer again or whether the cancer spread or not… They only go up to ten years and your mum has already achieved that… But if you want to look at them the ones i know are called adjuvant online, nhs predict and cancer life math which i think may go up to 15 years… But i would suggest to you or anybody else that you only look at them if you actually want to see the results.
Unfortunately, as Lulu has already said, there are no guarantees with Breast Cancer. It is one of the cancers that is known for recurrences, although this is a small percentage of cases. That is why none of us ever say we are ‘cured’ rather we prefer to say we are NED - no evidence of disease. However, your Mum was probably treated aggressively at time of diagnosis and she is doing well 11years later, so that is good news and a positive. The longer someone is ‘NED’ forthe better, as the chances of a recurrence lessen. You are at most risk 2-5 years after diagnosis. It is very difficult living with a Breast Cancer diagnosis - getting through debilitating treatment is hard enough, but all of us have to live with uncertainty afterwards. However, you have to focus on living and enjoying life and getting the most out of life. You can’t sit back and wait for it to come back and bite you! The positive things are what you need to hold onto : your Mum has coped with aggressive treatment, advances in BC treatment are bring made all the time and new drugs etc are becoming more widely available, she has a caring and supportive network of family etc who care about her - all of these make a difference. No one, not even the doctors + specialists, can give us any reassurances. Some ladies at high risk never have a recurrence and vice versa. All any of us can do is stay as well as we can and support each other. Your Mum is lucky to have you .
My mum has been clear for 9 years and 3 weeks ago it has returned. So you can never say never. Unfortunately I thought she would be fine as did the rest if the family and now I am taking it really badly. So it’s best just to keep an open mind I think. Take each day as it comes and enjoy every day with your mum I really hope she stays well.
I really hope she stays well.